Foodie Focus: Summertown Fresh Bar Fills a Fast and Healthy Restaurant Void in Corktown
Jake Newby
| 5 min read
Some restaurant owners are motivated to launch a concept they personally want to patronize in their community but can’t because it doesn't exist. This was the case for Detroit entrepreneur Mike Ransom in June 2023. When his popular Japanese noodles restaurant, Ima, outgrew its space at 2100 Michigan Ave. and a bigger building became available nearby, Ransom packed Ima up, moved it across the street and turned the smaller space into Summertown Fresh Bar.
“I’ve been in a resident in this neighborhood for eight years, living and working here, and there was just no quick and easy healthy food in the neighborhood,” Ransom said. “There’s a couple breakfast places and it’s not quick. And you can’t just pop in to get a quick smoothie or a quick meal that will tie you over, post-workout style.”
Ransom, who owns all three Ima locations as well as Supercrisp in Detroit, noted that if you wanted a light, fast casual meal in Corktown, you were mostly out of luck a couple of years ago.
“It was kind of a selfish project because me and all my managers were like, ‘would we need this in the neighborhood?’” Ransom said. “And they’re like, ‘yeah, I can’t get this anywhere.’ So, we created something that we missed in the neighborhood.”
‘We definitely let it evolve organically:’ What’s on the Summertown Menu
Much of Summertown’s identity swims in its fresh beverages, all of which are made in house. Smoothies, fruit and vegetable juices, wellness shots and coffee were concept cornerstones out of the gate.
Ransom remembers looking up and down Corktown before and realizing you couldn’t get a smoothie or fruit juice in the area unless you wanted added sweeteners, yogurt and canned fruit in every sip. So, in the if-you-want-something-done-right, do-it-yourself-spirit, he built a menu centered around drinks with simple, real ingredients.
“There weren’t a lot of smoothies that had all custom juices with no bases,” Ransom said. “All these franchise smoothie shops; they all use powders. Powdered-flavored, artificially flavored bases with a bunch of sugars and sweeteners. We decided to go with something clean.”
Any smoothie on the Summertown menu that does contain a sweetener does so by using agave syrup.
“We don’t use any flavoring agents; we do use a lot of mint and basil and aromatics. Ginger and turmeric we use to make our flavors a little more complex,” Ransom said. “But we also use those ingredients for their health qualities as well.”
Ransom’s favorite is the Fresh & Green smoothie, a 16-ounce drink filled with avocado, spinach, cucumber, banana, cantaloupe, apple, lime and agave.
“It’s one of my favorites,” he said.
Summertown wellness shots don’t promise any kind of healing effects. But like everything else on the menu, they’re clean and provide nutrients.
“To me, I drink them because they make me feel better when I have one,” Ransom said. “If I drink a lemon and turmeric and orange shot, I feel energized from it. To me, I eat what makes me feel good.”
Soon after Summertown opened, and Ransom noticed that void in fresh, fast and healthy meal providers, he expanded his food offerings.
“We were always going to do food, but it was going to be very light, he explained. “Cookies, croissants, pastries. And then we were like, ‘well, we want something savory.’ Sweets are great, but a lot of people don’t build sweets into their diets. I don’t want to be a junk food place where you feel like you have to grab a treat here. I want it to feel like you can come in here and feel good about your decision.”
For its breakfast program, Summertown introduced chia pudding and overnight oats, both of which are vegan and both of which are modifiable. Then came the sweet soba crepe wraps and eventually, for lunch, the crepe wraps and sandwiches, salads and miso soups.
“People love our soba crepe wrap sandwiches,” Ransom said. “We have a vegetarian option. You can add chicken or braised tofu to either one. The wraps are made in-house. People really dig that one.”
“We definitely let (the menu) evolve organically,” he added. “A lot of it is based on what we see people looking for and asking about.”
Emphasizing trust and reliability between restaurant and customer
Business was so slow at Summertime during its first few months. Ransom said it took people a while to really know they were there. After that adjustment process, Ransom figured out the next phase was building trust between his staff and the Corktown community.
“It takes a while for people to build you into their routine,” Ransom said.
On top of the fresh, clean ingredients and simple, tasty recipes, Ransom said great service has been a sneakily important contributor to Summertown’s growth and popularity.
“Morning and lunch businesses are very much about trust,” Ransom said. “If the timing is not right and it’s not reliable or consistent, people will stop coming. Going in for your cup of coffee when you have 10 minutes to wait and the coffee takes 20 minutes, that’ll ruin your day. If you’re a coffee-head, you need that coffee and you always need to be on time for work. Same with lunch, if you have 30 minutes for a lunch break, and the restaurant you trust takes an hour to get you your food, and you don’t get to eat and have to go to work hungry, you’re not going to want to go back.
“Here, people love our staff,” he added. “We have a great staff here. They enjoy serving people and they’re great to be around.”
Summertown is open seven days a week, from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Click here to check out its Instagram page.
The Foodie Focus series spotlights Michigan restaurants dedicated to serving fresh, quality food. From sourcing chemical-free ingredients to emphasizing sustainability, these are the backstories of clean-eating options throughout the state.
More from the Foodie Focus series:
More from the Foodie Focus series:
- Chartreuse Kitchen & Cocktails Settles in As One of Detroit’s Most Beloved Farm to Table Restaurants
- Breadless in Detroit Turns the Afterthought into the Centerpiece with Healthy, Innovative Sandwich Concept
- Aster Farm to Table Restaurant in Midland Focuses on Seasonality, Sustainability and Community
Photo credit: Summertown/Ima
